Solon supports plan to wean farmers away from expensive fertilizers

By Rio N. Araja

CAMARINES Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte is backing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s push for a balanced fertilization strategy involving the mixed-use of both biofertilizers or organic fertilizers and inorganic imports in farms.

The move is said to be a way for the government to finally wean farmers from decades of over-dependence on costly imported inputs that shrink their incomes and impair the environment.

“Freeing our farmers from the decadeslong chokehold of pricey imported chemical fertilizers in favor of the use of biofertilizers or organic inputs is an audacious agricultural policy shift that should have happened a long time back, in order to boost palay productivity, raise farmers’ incomes and pull down rice prices while at the same time reversing soil degradation and fighting planet warming,” he said.

“It has to take a President who is concur- rent Secretary of the Department of Agriculture to carry out this eco-friendly farming strategy, which makes sense as it will let him deliver on his multi-pronged commitments to modernize Philippine agriculture, slash rice prices, bump up farmers’ yields and incomes, nurture agribusiness and fight climate change,” he added.